Turning Trash to Treasure: Women Creating Change and Innovation

24 July, 2019

GreenHub has just completed its first year of the Plastic Action Network – tackling the urgent issue of plastic pollution in Vietnam at a grassroots level.

We’ve been working directly with local women in the Ha Long district to improve environmental management and diversify income streams. This has been achieved by training the women to collect and recycle discarded plastic items and turn them into new products that can be sold to the market. Read more here.

We have seen three main benefits arise:

The women have learnt new skills and developed new sources of livelihoods. In particular, they benefit financially as they receive additional sources of income, helping them to better support their families.

The women are actively contributing to the creation of a cleaner, healthier, more beautiful local environment as they rethink the way they view waste.

Working together, the project has forged deeper relationships and networks within the community, building a deeper community spirit and social ties. The women consistently encourage each other in their work and motivate each other in their designs and collection activities.

“We don’t think that we’ve just taken part in a three year project. Instead, we consider it to be a permanent project because environmental protection is the lifelong responsibility of every citizen. The skills we’ve learnt will last a lifetime.” – Representative from the Women’s Union of Hai Phong.

Given the success of the pilot project, GreenHub is currently investigating ways to scale up the project and introduce it to other locations. Read more about the project here.